How do you manage risk on your Homestead?

Good Afternoon,

I have been working on Lock Out Tag Out (LOTO) at my job, and started to consider risks that we face at home and how we mitigate it. For those who are not versed in LOTO it is a procedure for how to deenergize equipment and render it to a state that it can be worked on without a chance of it powering back up. This can be in the form of electrical disconnects, valves to stop the flow of materials, double block and bleed valves, and a ton more. Industry needs to have a good LOTO program in the USA in order to keep workers safe. What about home?

We all have all sorts of machinery and tools that are in a variety of states of repair. I know many farmers that remove guards from their equipment because "they get in the way". I am guilty of cutting corners and doing things that are not the brightest in hindsight. What are the biggest risks that you face on your homestead and how do you manage the risk?

I think the biggest risk I currently have at my homestead is the existence of two plug outlets still existing in some of the rooms. Without a ground, it just gives me the heebie-jeebies. There are plans to replace the panel and do some rewiring but in the short term due to the low amount of effect outlets I am swapping them to GCFIs.

What risks do you face and what do you do about them?

I think a huge risk for many homesteaders is that they work alone. And their partner may be off, or they may not have a partner around. This is made worse if the homesteader is no longer a "spring chicken".

When doing dangerous things, always let someone know. I just heard of an aging gardener who would always let her neighbor know when she was going to be using the tractor. If she did not call every hour, he would go check on her. She mentioned one time it could have been bad if he had not checked in on her.

If you can't or don't have family around, make some connections with neighbors. It might save your life.

In our area we have a lot of tractor accidents, mostly with older people working alone. Having someone to check in is smart.

In the last few months 3 people we know have died in falls and another was significantly disabled. Two were older people but two were younger than us. Around the house we've gotten very serious about Not Being Stupid with ladders: nobody goes up a ladder, stool, or chair without someone else around, period.

I find risk to be a fascinating topic.  The definition I use is that risk is measured by intersecting likelihood and potential severity. So, low likelihood and low severity doesn’t warrant special attention.  High likelihood and high severity demands attention. Of course, after that decisions get more complicated.  

Events that have a low potential to occur but could result in severe outcomes, I make a point of seeking help or hiring it done.

Events that happen frequently with lower potential for a severe outcome, I seek training and tell my wife what I am up to.

I do make a point of carrying my cell phone…that I dislike.

I save up dangerous jobs to attack on the same day and make a point of having hired help with me.

A friend once told me that the first rule of life is “Don’t do dumb things.”    I make a point of asking myself, “How dumb is this?”

Our biggest risk is fire and flood.

I live on the top of a mountain so who would have thought that flood would be a big risk or even one at all for that matter?

If rain is in the forecast we cannot leave home.

I have a good food storage and full freezers so that really helps there.

We also understand what Matt suggested about doing things alone.  When either of us leaves our zone one we time how long that trip would normally take so we can check to find out why that person has not returned.

I feel the risk is going to be different for every homestead.

I think some of the risk factors we forget to take into account are fatigue and ego.
I think a lot of us who like to work physically, at least from all the posts I’ve read here, get very focused on what we’re doing and since there’s a lot to do on a homestead, we tend to forget to stop and take breaks. Fatigue can creep in and make us less attentive and focused and I feel it makes doing almost anything risky. I’ve learned to listen to the signals of fatigue and take a break or even end the work day if I feel like I can’t get rested enough to continue.
And I say ego because it takes confidence to do everything and anything there is to do on a homestead but it can easily makes us overconfident and thinking we can do anything but preparation and learning is key and staying humble while being proud of what is accomplished is a delicate but important balance to work safely.

I don't have a homestead, but during summers I go to our land in Southern Utah to work on projects by myself. My wife always knows where I am and we generally talk on the phone every couple days. I know I take risks, and if something happened it would be a long time before anyone could do anything about it. But the benefits outweigh the risks for me. I need the time to myself, and I need to feel independent.

Dick Proennecke was orders of magnitude more extreme than me (probably few people have been more extreme than him with regards to solitude), but I hang onto one of the passages from his journals:

"I have often thought about what I would do out here if I were stricken with a serious illness, if I broke a leg, cut myself badly, or had an attack of appendicitis. Almost as quickly as the thought came, I dismissed it. Why worry about something that isn’t? Worrying about something that might happen is not a healthy pastime. A man’s a fool to live his life under a shadow like that."

That's not to say that we shouldn't all mitigate our risks, but we shouldn't dwell on them unnecessarily either, and we can't let them stop us from doing what we love to do.

It’s interesting to see how your experience with Lock Out Tag Out at work has got you thinking about home safety. LOTO is such a critical procedure in industry to ensure that equipment is completely de-energized and safe to work on. Applying that mindset to home safety is smart, especially considering how many potential hazards we deal with daily.On a homestead, risks can come from all sorts of things—machinery, electrical issues, even just everyday tasks. Your concern about those old two-prong outlets is totally valid. Without a ground, they can be dangerous, especially if something goes wrong with whatever’s plugged in. Swapping them out for GCFI outlets is a solid temporary fix, as they’ll trip the circuit if there’s an imbalance, reducing the risk of shock.